Tag Archives: cilantro

Winter sowing of cilantro

Leave a reply

First put together 10 weeks ago, this cilantro is now ready to be separated and placed into squares. So far I’ve put them in 7 squares-28 plants, with about 5-7 more squares to go. Winter sowing is such a good practice. I took an empty olive oil container, cleaned it out, and then cut it around the mid-line. After filling it with moist soil, I added the cilantro seed, watered in again gently, closed the container with scotch tape, removed the top cap, and then placed it in my gardens which are covered with plastic and spun bound fabric.

There have been days where I pulled the plastic back to vent because it can really get warm under covers. I’ve done no work with this container. Try this easy technique next winter to enjoy an early spring garden. The seeds just know when it’s time to come up. One of the best things about winter sowing is you don’t have to worry about hardening your new plants off. They’ve been living in the very cool environment from the beginning. 

All that’s left for me to do is to separate the seedlings and put them in the squares of the SFG. Four plants per square. So far I’ve planted 7 squares or 28 seedlings with a lot more to go. By the time the neighborhood starts to think about planting their gardens in a month (still too early unless they’re ready to protect from more snow/freezing temperatures), I’ll have begun harvesting cilantro. I’ve already been enjoying over wintered carrots, parsnips, tatsoi, mache, claytonia, spinach, mizuna, and salad greens. 

For those who may be interested, I have a beginning square foot garden class at my home coming up in a couple of weeks. Space is limited. See details here. 

The ease of planting in the square foot garden

Leave a reply

One of the greatest things about a square foot garden is you don’t have to do it all at once. I like to do a few little things every day during the growing season. Easy things. As I look to previous garden diary notes, this month and April are the most active months for me as far as active planting. 

Today I planted 2 squares of red onions, 2 squares of red pontiac potatoes, and 3 squares of lettuces. I turned the compost pile and watered anything that look a little dry. My winter sowings look really good and in a few days I’ll begin to separate those up and put them into squares. Cilantro, spinach, and tatsoi are the most ready to go. 

Planting two or three squares every few days means a lot less work. It also means you won’t have an all at once harvest. By the time Labor day rolls around, when most of your neighborhood gardeners are burned out from weeding, watering, and the overall work load of their gardens, you’ll be thinking of ways to extend your season because it was so little work. 

And you enjoyed 100% of the harvest. 

Eat better tasting food without all the pesticides on them. Save money. Take control of your food supply. 

Cilantro in the square foot garden coming out of winter

Leave a reply

I’ve heard many people during classes mention the fact that they have a hard time growing cilantro. When did you try to grow it? “In June or July.” Well, thats probably the reason. Cilantro grows much easier in the cooler climates of the year. If you start it in mid-fall, it will even do well in the protected environment of a low tunnel, where you can harvest throughout the winters in our zone 6B. This particular crop of cilantro has been in the garden all winter, and still has a way to go before I’ll empty the square and replant with something different. 

For those interested, I have a first time class coming up in 2 weeks. Titled “The Doomsday Garden” 🙂 , this class is virtual. I’m hoping everything will work with the technology. The walk through went okay, but you know how things like this can go. This is the perfect time to get back into gardening. This method requires less work compared to other systems with so many other advantages. You can find information out about the class here on my blog. We’ll cover the basics of how to get your gardens up as fast as possible, and hopefully to reduce a bit of stress with the anxiety this has created for us all. 

My square foot garden coming out of winter

Leave a reply

It’s about time to start planting some things directly into the garden now. This is a picture of what mine looks like under cover. The empty spaces have been the latest things that I’ve been having for lunches and salads, and even a few things for breakfast(baby arugula in scrambled eggs?) Some have been replanted, and some I’ll hold off on to put transplants in the next several days. I’ve still got a lot of good eating under there. Claytonia, spinach, cilantro, onions, carrots, lettuce, tokyo bekana,  bok choi, and some green onions.

Today I direct seeded kale, more spinach, french breakfast radish, and some turnips. With the exception of kale, these will be up quickly and harvested long before the summer garden gets here. 

Preparing for spring

Leave a reply

A little hard to believe-tomorrow we begin the first day of 10 hours of sunlight. This means we’ve come out of the Persephone period and plants will now begin to grow. It will be slow at first but will pick up as spring approaches. There’s still a lot of winter weather to deal with but the garden is ready to be warmed up. Some of the garden has been over-wintered and looks very good.

I usually begin covering my garden with plastic the first week of February so the soil will be ready to plant by February 17th. This year I’ll wait until the first week of March. The reason? I don’t seem to get ahead by the earlier starting date but it does add to my workload.

The next couple of weeks I’ll be selecting and ordering seeds. If you’ve been on my site much, you’ll already know my favorite places to buy. Johhny’s, Burpee, Jungs, and Territorial Seed. There’s a local place I like to buy from-Mountain Valley Seeds.

Crops I’ll be planting will be my regular early spring crops: several varieties of lettuce, spinach, claytonia, beet greens, tokyo bekana, corn salad, chard, bok choi, and maybe radicchio. My cool weather herbs have always been cilantro and chives[ois skin=”3″]